Take the gambling self-assessment
If you searched for a “gambling addiction test,” you’re already doing something that takes courage: looking honestly at how gambling fits into your life. This page gives you a real, clinically validated way to do that — privately, in about two minutes, with no sign-up and no judgment.
The assessment below is the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the nine-question screen used by public-health agencies and gambling-support services around the world. It runs entirely in your browser — your answers are never sent anywhere, saved, or tied to your identity. When you finish, you’ll get a plain-language result and support options that match it. Whatever your score, help is free and confidential, and it’s listed right on the results screen.
One thing to be clear about from the start: this is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It can tell you whether your gambling shows patterns worth paying attention to. Only a qualified professional can diagnose a gambling disorder — so treat your result as the beginning of a conversation, not the final word.
Take the self-assessment
This short assessment uses the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), a clinically validated tool used by gambling-support organizations worldwide. It has 9 questions, takes about 2 minutes, and is completely anonymous — your answers never leave your device.
This is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. Only a qualified professional can diagnose a gambling disorder. If you need to talk to someone now, call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700 (US), or see the helplines below.
What this self-assessment measures
The PGSI was developed by Jackie Ferris and Harold Wynne in 2001 as part of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index, commissioned by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. Unlike older clinical checklists that were designed for treatment settings, the PGSI was built specifically to measure gambling risk in the general population — ordinary people, not patients. That’s exactly the situation you’re in right now, which is why it’s the right tool for a self-check.
It has become the most widely used gambling-risk screen in the world. National prevalence studies and regulators — including the UK Gambling Commission, gambling authorities across Australian states, and the Responsible Gambling Council in Canada — rely on it to track gambling harm. In validation research it has shown strong internal consistency (a Cronbach’s alpha of roughly 0.84), meaning its nine questions reliably measure the same underlying thing: the degree to which gambling is causing problems in a person’s life.
The nine questions each ask about the last 12 months and cover four kinds of warning sign: risky behavior (betting more than you can afford, chasing losses, borrowing to gamble), loss of control (needing to bet more for the same excitement), harmful consequences (financial trouble, health effects like stress and anxiety), and the reactions of the people around you (criticism, and your own guilt). You answer each on a simple four-point scale — never, sometimes, most of the time, almost always — and the tool adds them into a single score from 0 to 27.
How your score is worked out
Each answer is worth 0 to 3 points — never is 0, sometimes is 1, most of the time is 2, and almost always is 3. Add up all nine and you get a total between 0 and 27. Most gambling tests you’ll find online never explain this part; we think you deserve to see exactly how the result is reached. The PGSI sorts that total into four established risk bands:
| Score | Risk level | What it generally means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No risk | No signs of gambling-related problems in the last 12 months. |
| 1–2 | Low risk | Gambling with few or no negative consequences, though a couple of answers are worth watching. |
| 3–7 | Moderate risk | Some negative consequences are showing up; this is a good point to make a change or seek support. |
| 8 or more | Higher risk | A pattern consistent with problem gambling and significant negative effects; professional support can help. |
These cut-offs come from the original PGSI research and are the same ones used in national health surveys. They’re deliberately conservative at the top end: a score of 8 doesn’t label you, but it does mean enough warning signs are present that talking to someone who understands gambling is worth it.
What your result means — and what you can do next
Your score describes your responses, not your character. Gambling harm exists on a spectrum, people move up and down it over time, and every band below has a constructive next step.
No risk (0) or low risk (1–2)
If you scored in this range, gambling doesn’t appear to be causing problems right now. The most useful thing you can do is keep it that way: decide in advance how much time and money you’re willing to spend, treat any losses as the cost of entertainment rather than something to win back, and check in with yourself again if your circumstances change. Most reputable gambling sites let you set deposit, loss, and time limits — turning those on before you need them is a simple, powerful habit.
Moderate risk (3–7)
A moderate score means some negative effects are already showing — maybe you’ve chased losses, felt stressed, or noticed gambling taking up more space than you’d like. This is the range where a small step now can prevent a bigger problem later. Setting firm limits helps, but so does talking to someone: a free helpline advisor, a counselor, or even a trusted friend. You don’t have to have “hit bottom” to reach out — the services listed on your results screen exist precisely for people at this stage.
Higher risk (8 or more)
A higher-risk score suggests gambling is having a significant impact on your life. This is far more common than most people realize, and it is treatable — many people recover fully with the right support. Effective options include free helplines that offer confidential counseling, self-exclusion tools that block access to gambling sites, financial counseling for gambling-related debt, and peer support through groups like Gamblers Anonymous. Reaching out is usually the hardest step and the most important one. If you’re ever having thoughts of harming yourself, please contact a crisis line such as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988 in the US) or your local emergency services right away.
Whatever your result, our gambling help & support page brings together helplines, self-exclusion programs, and support groups for the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and beyond.
A closer look at the nine questions
It helps to know what each question is really getting at. The nine items fall into four groups, and together they build a picture of not just how much you gamble, but whether it’s costing you.
Loss of control over money and time
“Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?” and “When you gambled, did you go back another day to try to win back the money you lost?” These two get at the most common early warning signs. Betting beyond your means is about the size of the stake relative to your budget, not the amount itself. Chasing losses — returning to “win it back” — is one of the strongest predictors of gambling harm, because it turns a bad session into a cycle that’s hard to break.
Escalation and desperation
“Have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement?” describes tolerance — the same word used for substances, because the mechanism is similar: the brain adapts, and it takes more to feel the same buzz. “Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?” is a marker of serious escalation. Borrowing or selling possessions to fund gambling is rarely a one-off; it usually signals that normal limits have stopped applying.
Consequences for your health, money, and sense of self
Three questions ask about the fallout: “Has gambling caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety?”, “Has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household?”, and “Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?” Gambling harm is rarely only financial — the stress, sleeplessness, and guilt often arrive before the money runs out, and they affect the people you live with too. Naming these honestly is where a lot of people first realize the cost has crept up on them.
How it looks from the outside
“Have people criticized your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem?” and “Have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?” bring in two perspectives that are easy to dismiss: other people’s concern, and your own quiet suspicion. The question about others is worded carefully — it counts whether or not you agreed with them at the time, because the people around us often notice a pattern before we’re ready to. And if you’ve ever privately wondered whether you have a problem, that instinct is worth taking seriously; it’s one of the questions clinicians weight most heavily.
Gambling problems are treatable
If any of this is landing close to home, hold on to one fact: gambling problems respond to help. People at every point on the risk spectrum get better — often faster than they expect — with the right mix of support, practical tools, and a plan. That might mean a few conversations with a free helpline, blocking software and self-exclusion to create distance, financial counseling to deal with debt, or ongoing support through counseling or a peer group. There is no single right path, and asking for help is a sign of strength, not failure. The resources on your results screen are staffed by people who do this every day, and they’ve heard it all before — without judgment.
Who this test is for — and its limits
The PGSI is designed for adults (18+) who gamble, or who used to, and want to understand their own risk. It works whether you play slots, table games, sports betting, lotteries, or online casinos — it asks about gambling in general, not any single activity. It’s most accurate when you answer honestly about the past 12 months; there are no “right” answers, and no one else sees them.
Like any short screen, it has limits worth naming plainly. It measures risk and consequences, not a clinical diagnosis — the formal criteria for gambling disorder are assessed differently, by a professional. It can’t account for everything going on in your life, and it isn’t a substitute for talking to a doctor or counselor. If gambling is worrying you, a low score doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation — and a high score isn’t a verdict, it’s a prompt to get support. Other validated tools exist too, such as the shorter Lie/Bet screen and the clinical criteria in the DSM-5; a professional can help you figure out which picture fits.
Your privacy: how this test protects you
Because this is a sensitive subject, we built the assessment to collect nothing at all. Every question, answer, and result is processed on your own device, in your browser. There is no account, no email, no cookie tracking your answers, and no data sent to us or anyone else — so there’s nothing to leak, sell, or subpoena. You can close the page and it’s gone. If you share a device and want to be certain, the assessment leaves no history behind once you navigate away.
We also deliberately left out the things that make these tools feel manipulative: there’s no score to “share,” no upsell, no pressure. Just the questions, an honest result, and the resources to act on it.
About this assessment
This tool uses the Problem Gambling Severity Index exactly as published — the nine standard items, the standard four-point scale, and the standard 0–27 scoring bands — without alteration. It is provided for education and self-reflection. The PGSI is an open-access instrument from Ferris, J. & Wynne, H. (2001), The Canadian Problem Gambling Index, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. Casinos Oracle is a casino-comparison site, not a healthcare provider; we publish this because responsible gambling means giving people honest tools, including the tools to stop.